By transforming their networks and operations with the newest technologies, mobile operators could double their cash-flow conversion within five years. The past several years have been tough for telecom companies. Their revenue and cash flows1 1. Cash flow is measured here in terms of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) minus capital expenditures. Consumption of mobile data boomed, as masses of new wireless customers used their handsets to spend ever-increasing amounts of time online. Companies responded by investing heavily in their wireless networks, even as subscriber growth slowed. As a result, the average ratio of capital spending to revenues has remained stubbornly high, at around 15 percent, for the major players (Exhibit 1).

The team behind Pepper, the humanoid robot from SoftBank Robotics, are planning a platform for the machine where developers create applications for everyday use, such as guarding your home or vacuuming the floor. Developers are already able to build Pepper apps using Android tools, however SoftBank Robotics is also considering opening up its Pepper platform -- similar to a mobile "app store" -- for developers to sell or market software to consumers, said Nicolas Boudot, EMEA sales director, in an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. Boudot gave examples of home improvements or care for the elderly as potential software applications that could be created. However, he didn't give a time frame for when Pepper would become more widely available to developers. He said SoftBank Robotics is currently focusing on growing sales of the product, which costs $20,000 (about ¥2.3 million), to businesses.

It may be a month away from being officially launched, but we have the clearest visual of the Samsung Galaxy S8 yet and it confirms everything suspected about the South Korean flagship. Noted rumor-dealer Evan Blass has tweeted out what appears to be a press glamor image of the new Android-powered handset with a comment of "I think this is what you've been waiting for." Given Blass' track record in obtaining real world and marketing images, I'm very confident that these images are the real deal. Not only does it match up with the leaks and rumours from trusted sources, it also fits with the video images and the press invites released by Samsung. The minimal bezels on the left and right sides of the screen are clear.

An official-looking press shot of the Samsung Galaxy S8 has just been leaked. Tech tipster Evan Blass posted the image, which includes no additional details about the upcoming smartphone, on Twitter. It matches up with the speculation surrounding the handset, providing the first clear look at the S8's so-called "infinity display", which is said to cover over 80% of its front panel. I think this is what you've been waiting for. Samsung has trimmed down the S8's bezels to help keep it relatively compact, but the move could prove problematic for customers.

Amazon is setting its sights on another industry, this time it's call centers. In doing so, the company plans to use Alexa, Lex and also Polly in the said market. According to an article at Geek Wire, Amazon Web Services is developing a suite of cloud-based tools to sell to the enterprises that would manage call centers. Aside from its big plans of invading the call center industry, the company plans to incorporate its digital assistant Alexa to answer some questions on the phone as well as via text message. Amazon also plans to employ Lex, a chatbox building service that uses deep-learning technology similar to Alexa, and a text-to-speech program named Polly as well.

BARCELONA: SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son today outlined his vision for artificial intelligence and said computers running AI programs will exceed human intelligence within three decades. Delivering a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress here, Son said he expects one computer chip to have the equivalent of 10,000 IQ within this period. "In the past 2,000 years, the hardware in our brains has not improved... In the next 30 years, AI will overtake human intelligence," he said. Son added that with the strong growth seen for Internet of Things (IoT), the number of embedded chips that are recording and transforming data into something useful will top "one trillion".

It's rare that software engineers are lauded as the heroes of anything, but Roborace CEO Denis Sverdlov wants to change that. Sverdlov, formerly CEO of Russian mobile operator Yota, set up Roborace last year with the goal of organizing street races that will pit self-driving cars against one another. "In the racing environment engineers are usually in the background. Here the software engineers are the heroes," he said at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Designing and building high-performance race cars is horrendously expensive, but Sverdlov wants Roborace to be an intellectual competition, not a financial one.

SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son reacts as SoftBank's human-like robots named "Pepper" performs. Singularity -- the point when machine intelligence surpasses our own and goes on to improve itself at an exponential rate -- will happen by 2047, according to Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tech mogul leading SoftBank. Son was speaking on Monday at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain. He said: "I totally believe this concept. In next 30 years this will become a reality."

SoftBank Founder and CEO Masayoshi Son today outlined his vision for artificial intelligence and said computers running AI programs will exceed human intelligence within three decades. Delivering a keynote address at the Mobile World Congress here, Son said he expects one computer chip to have the equivalent of 10,000 IQ within this period. "In the past 2,000 years, the hardware in our brains has not improved… In the next 30 years, AI will overtake human intelligence," he said. Son added that with the strong growth seen for Internet of Things (IoT), the number of embedded chips that are recording and transforming data into something useful will top "one trillion". Son, who sported a black turtleneck sweater and black pants, joked that even a pair of sneakers will have more computing power that a person.

If you're looking for the future of mobile, it may be time to stop staring at the palm of your hand and look instead toward the open roads and sky. On Monday, the ginormous trade show Mobile World Congress will open its 2017 edition in Barcelona, where about 100,000 people are expected. While there will be the usual unveiling of select smartphones and tablets, MWC has dramatically increased the presence of drones and autonomous vehicles as it seeks to expand the concept of what we mean by the word "mobile." The event is dedicating almost an entire day each to vehicles -- both connected and autonomous -- and drones. In addition, the conference has added multiple sessions on artificial intelligence, as it relates to vehicles and drones, as well as other mobile uses.